Jennifer Joseph

Born in Melbourne in 1949. After graduating in art teaching and studying Fine Art part-time at RMIT Joseph eschewed post-graduate studies and committed herself solely to studio practice. In fact, despite her student years she considers herself essentially self-taught. She realised early that art for her was to be discovered in the making.

Joseph's painting and works on paper, comprising both drawing and collage, have always been uncompromisingly abstract. They are born from her inner reality and life experiences and probe questions of life, death and the transitory nature of existence. Whilst her concern is with the ephemeral or the 'spiritual', her art paradoxically deals with substance or materiality. As Peter Timms has stated, she is "an artist's artist". Her inspiration is drawn from walls, roads, edges. She believes the simplest statement is the strongest statement, so her paintings and drawings are pared back, leaving only the most essential marks.

As well as paintings on canvas and wood, Joseph has exhibited a large installation of painted tea chests and wooden boxes and occasionally works on small sculptures and assemblages. Most paintings are executed on linen but at times she incorporates discarded wood or metal as collage in some works.

In keeping with Joseph's philosophy and approach to her art practice she lives nocturnally. She finds nights are a time without the practical distractions of the day and are more conducive to the meditative state of mind required to 'enter' her paintings. It is a time for absolute solitude. She will sit for long hours contemplating works in progress and when focused and deeply concentrated the finished painting or drawing will be executed at great speed, almost in a frenzy. The thinking, controlling mind then cannot interfere. Joseph's paintings do not conceal the act of making. She refuses to prettify her art and it requires a willingness on the part of the viewer to spend time to contemplate these understated and often somber works.

Joseph sees all her art as a process, a life-long process, where the act of painting is as significant as the result.